ANI-MOVIES, *The Colors Within

Naoko Yamada's third full-length anime movie, The Colors Within, picks up from the emotional ride that A Silent Voice plus Liz And The Blue Bird left off on. The former animator of K-On took up directing this feature also about a teenage band with an original story written by Reiko Yoshida. There are few other films that compare to the story structure and the way that the characters coalesce their separate lives into a singular commitment of working together. Yamada's peculiar perspective combined with studio Science SARU's outlandish animation that made Dandadan a home run turn this into a subtle and beautiful coming-of-age feature to consider.

Totsuko is a student at a catholic girl's school who sometimes does tiny but forgivable sins, plus she is kind and thoughtful with the unique ability to see people with their own separate glow of color. This isn't magic or some mutant superpower, just a different perspective on relating to others, similar to how the character Shoyo from A Silent Voice views all of his peers with a large letter x over their faces to mentally block them out. Totsuko's point of view, often referred to at synesthesia, makes her notice fellow classmate Kimi who later on drops out of school despite not telling her rather hip grandmother who took her in. Kimi got a job working in a bookstore which Totsuko discovers by following a stray cat which borrows a note from Whispers Of The Heart, and she also notices Kimi practicing her guitar that her brother left for her. Someone else who noticed is Rui, a teenage boy who spends much of his spare time playing the keyboard and of all things a theremin, after which he asks Kimi if she wants to form a band with him in front of Totsuko. The aura-sensing schoolgirl notices that Kimi and Rui's colors reflect well off each other, so the matchmaker in her kicks in and insists all of them become a band, even though Totsuko only just then picked up a book at random about playing piano. The three of them concede to meet at a vacant church that Rui is caretaker of which the girls have to take a ferry boat to get to despite Totsuko's motion sickness. Totsuko starts writing lyrics about the solar system after she gets an epiphany in science class, even though she gets in trouble after inviting Kimi over to her dorm while the rest of the school went on a field trip which forces the two of them to spend more time together doing community service for a month. On Christmas Eve, all three of them meet up at the church and get snowed in where they all open up about each other and what motivates them to be in a band. They get an offer from the school's Sister Hiyoshiko to play at the Valentine's Day celebration which has them put on the performance of a lifetime.

GKids did an amazing job localizing this for English-speaking audiences, especially their localization of the Japanese song lyrics, making the English dub as good to watch as well as the original. As this is Naoko Yamada's first original anime movie not based on an existing property or franchise, The Colors Within is a heartwarming slice-of-life that she perfectly directs. The animation drifts between traditional and watercolor visions shown from Totsuko's outlook and helps as the nearly flawless design breaks the barrier between dreams and reality. The main draw of this anime is the soundtrack which you don't get to experience much of until the concert near the finale, but composer Kensuke Ushio deserves a special salute as the music here mirrors the work he did on Devilman Crybaby and Chainsaw Man. Even though the characters' motivation for forming a band were done merely as a hobby who still want to achieve their life goals, their attempt to put together an amateur achievement has a deep resonance on them. The Colors Within doesn't tug on the heartstrings as much as A Silent Voice did, but it is a more uplifting slice-of-life movie that is safe for all ages.